DUBOIS – One of the suspects in a burglary that led to a stand-off in DuBois waived her right to a preliminary hearing Friday during centralized court.
Rikki Lee Stephens, 21, currently an inmate of the jail, is also charged with criminal conspiracy/burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. Her bail was lowered from $100,000 to $40,000 Friday.
Stephens, Travis Roy Gonzales, 31, 111 Spring Ave., DuBois, and Torry David Gonzales, 33, 316 S. Jared St., DuBois, are accused of breaking into a DuBois home sometime between June 28 and June 29 and removing more than $68,000 of property. This crime led police to a Spring Avenue residence where they apprehended Torry Gonzales.
When they knocked on the door, it was shut on an officer’s face at this home. Because it was believed other suspects were inside, police had a stand-off. They evacuated the area and waited for a search warrant. When police entered the home, it was discovered to be empty, according to previous reports.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, an officer spotted Gonzalez outside the Spring Avenue home on June 30. Because he was wanted on a warrant in addition to being a suspect for the burglary, he was approached.
Gonzalez was bending half his body inside a vehicle to avoid the officer. The officer requested he show his hands, but he did not comply and kept bending over the back seat of the vehicle. He was then placed under arrest.
When the vehicle was searched, officers said they found a sawed off shotgun of the same type stolen in the burglary, where Gonzales had been reaching. There was also a stock of a shotgun and a small hack saw in the vehicle. In the front seat, they found a backpack with items missing from the burglarized home.
Additional items including two safes were recovered from the DuBois Manor Motel in a room rented by Gonzales, police said. A search warrant served on luggage owned by Travis Gonzales uncovered more items taken in the crime.
In an interview with police, Stephens admitted to being in the motel room where she had seen the stolen items.
Another witness told police Stephens and Travis Gonzales borrowed her vehicle the night of the burglary. They returned to the Spring Avenue home with a box of items. When this victim asked where the items came from, Stephens told her they went into a house. Travis and Torry Gonzales left again and returned with food, jewelry, and two guns wrapped in a towel, the witness said.
Among the things stolen were the victim’s credit cards. Police were able to review security footage of the transactions on the cards on June 30. In one of these, officers saw Torry and Travis Gonzales purchasing items at Martin’s Grocery Store and in other footage Travis Gonzales and Stephens using the card at the Dollar General Store in Brookville.
Torry and Travis Gonzales are both scheduled for preliminary hearings on Sept. 2.